Soviet Union: Cold War Defectors -- Authors, Dancers, and Svetlana

Figure 1.--Defectors weere primarily an issue affecting the Soviet Union. There were, however, also some American defectors. Only in America, people were free to leave. The American Border Patrol exists to keep aliens out, not to keep Americans in against their will. Here we see American sailors in 1967. Service personnel of course can be arrested for going AWOL. The caption here reads, "AWOL Sailors in Moscow: The SovietbUniin destributed Dec. 14th new pictures of four Ameruican sailors who jumped ship in Japan and fled to Russia. Officials said the pictures, showing the sailors against Moscow backgrounds, were taken Dec. 12th. Here, the four sailors who defected from the aircraft carrier 'U.S.S. Intrepid' play with youngsters in a Moscow park. They are idntified as (left to right) Michael Lindner, 19, John Barilla, 20, Craig Andeeson, 20, amd Richard Bailey, 19." The four sailors were trasported to Sweden. We are not sure if this was their choice or the decision of Soviet authorities.

A new phenomenon occurred with the advent of socialist states--the defector. Sociasliststates are by definition totalitarian because only a totalitarian state can abolish private property. Theroughout history, reimes did not generally prevent people leaving a country, alyhough people with skills such as silk making might be prevented. In the 19th century the Tsarist Goivernment, for example, did not restrict emigration. In fact, they were happy to get rid of Jews, Poles, and others. The soviet Union and other Communist Government took a different look. The Boirder Police were strengthen not onky to protect the Soviet Union, but to prevent people from leaving. It is not all together clear why the Soviets andityher Commijisdt government reacted so harshly with potential emigrees, which they interpreted essentially as defection. There are several possible reasons. First if you present your country as a workers' paradise, it is hard to explain why workers wanted to leave. Second, if you want to hide conditions in the country every emigrant carries with them a truthful view of conditions and a personal story. Third, as a pervasive police state, defectors could be used for slave labor in the Gulag. During the Stalinist era, trying to leave was basically a one way ticket to the Gulag. After De-Stalinization it was possible, but very difficult and applicants would lose your job and any way to make a living. Few Soviets had any opportunity because the borders were so closely patrolled. The only Soviets that had a real opportunity were the few Soviet citizens who were rewqarded with travel opportunities, meaning primarily arists abd atheletes. This became a major issue when some Soviet Jews tried to emmigrte. The Soviet Union had its defenders in the West. This included primarily artists and academia. Curiously, except for spies, even the most sevre critics of America were not anxios to flee to The Soviet Union for free speech or artistic expression. In contrast some noted Russian authors did flee to the West or at least had their books published in the West. The most noted authors were Boris Pastrnak and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. High profile dancers also sought asylum in the West to be able to freely develop their art. And in this group was Svetlana Alliluyeva, Stalin's daughter. It seems that among Stalin's victims were his wife and sons. Of course defection was a two way street, only Americans and other Western citizens weere free to leave the country. There were not very many, but there were a few. There were some people like Bernie Sanders that were estatic about socialism and the Soviet Union, but very few seemed to ask themselves why living conditions were so poor or wanted to live there.

Created: 3:53 PM 1/24/2022
Last updated: 3:53 PM 1/24/2022